The Other 68 Dart Resto Project
Its been a couple of weeks since I last posted, but I have been getting stuff accomplished.
Next on my listwas the hood. I needed to prep the top and bottom for paint. I started by sanding the dark green paint and what was left of the clearcoat off the top. This actually took 2 days with a D/A sander and 120 grit paper. What was underneath on the whole car is some good high-build primer (dark red) over the factory green paint. SInce the factory paint was laquer, and the surfacer was laquer, and my new paint will be laquer, I am leaving the stuff underneat, as there are no adhesion or rust issues. After spending many hours with the D/A, I was pretty convinced that the hood was now super flat and ready for primer.
I took the hood off the car and flipped it upside down on my table. There was lots of dirt, grease, carbon, and grime underneath, as well as some surface rust, but no rusthrough. I wiped the whole underside of the hood with laquer thinner several times and finally got the grunge off. I started to sand off some of the rust and noticed that a lot of the paint was chpping off near the back of the hood, so, besides sanding any rust down, I went at any loose paint I could find, down to bare metal.
After I gut the problem areas to bare metal, I sprayed on some rust converter.
WHen done, I sprayed the bare areas with etching primer. Underside done.
I flipped the hood back over for the final prepwork. I looked at the front edge and decided that I needed to get rid of the "DODGE" letters. I welded the holes shut, ground down the beads, then coated the area with filler. I threw on a coat of surfacer to fill in some of the scratches and and help with the final blocking.
Remember when I said that I was pretty sure the hood was perfectly flat, well, this is the reason you need to block sand everything. Now it is flat, but check out the pattern. Goes to show you, you cant trust your eye.
Its been a couple of weeks since I last posted, but I have been getting stuff accomplished.
Next on my listwas the hood. I needed to prep the top and bottom for paint. I started by sanding the dark green paint and what was left of the clearcoat off the top. This actually took 2 days with a D/A sander and 120 grit paper. What was underneath on the whole car is some good high-build primer (dark red) over the factory green paint. SInce the factory paint was laquer, and the surfacer was laquer, and my new paint will be laquer, I am leaving the stuff underneat, as there are no adhesion or rust issues. After spending many hours with the D/A, I was pretty convinced that the hood was now super flat and ready for primer.
I took the hood off the car and flipped it upside down on my table. There was lots of dirt, grease, carbon, and grime underneath, as well as some surface rust, but no rusthrough. I wiped the whole underside of the hood with laquer thinner several times and finally got the grunge off. I started to sand off some of the rust and noticed that a lot of the paint was chpping off near the back of the hood, so, besides sanding any rust down, I went at any loose paint I could find, down to bare metal.
After I gut the problem areas to bare metal, I sprayed on some rust converter.
WHen done, I sprayed the bare areas with etching primer. Underside done.
I flipped the hood back over for the final prepwork. I looked at the front edge and decided that I needed to get rid of the "DODGE" letters. I welded the holes shut, ground down the beads, then coated the area with filler. I threw on a coat of surfacer to fill in some of the scratches and and help with the final blocking.
Remember when I said that I was pretty sure the hood was perfectly flat, well, this is the reason you need to block sand everything. Now it is flat, but check out the pattern. Goes to show you, you cant trust your eye.